Friday, April 20, 2012

Let's Talk: Books I Have Read Because of Book Bloggers

Question: What books have you read because of the recommendations of book bloggers?

I only recently started keeping track on Goodreads of who recommend me books, but I know there are a ton of bloggers that I value the opinions of. A lot of the time though, I am turned off of books more so than turned on to them. I'm not saying that I see a negative review and automatically decide not to read it, but sometimes someone will say like "there was so much bodice-ripping romance!" and I'll think O_o maybe not for me. I think that book bloggers influence people, even if it's not directly from their blog. I get a lot of recommendations on Twitter and Goodreads. I think most book bloggers post their reviews on Amazon or Barnes & Noble and those reviews help people decide if a book is for them or not. Maybe people don't come to my blog to see reviews, but they read my reviews in one of the million other places that I post. As the head of the YA department at my library, I am always talking about books. I tell kids about books and fellow librarians and EVERYONE! So I think bloggers are super important, because early reviews help librarians decide which books to order and we don't always trust the industry reviews ;)

A lot of the time bloggers don't necessarily recommend books just to me, but talk so much about how much they love the, (like Melissa and Raw Blue) that I am dying to read them, because they must be fantastic. This happens a lot with books that have little publicity or covers that don't quite work for me. I'll read a review and know that it is a great pick for me.